“For the last year and a half they did no Obama sketches at all. They just were like, ‘oh, we don’t know what to do…’ I said, ‘just let me do my characters and we’ll be fine.’ They didn’t wanna do that,” Pharoah said.

“I feel like they gave up … gave up on the Obama thing,” he continued.

“SNL” became increasingly progressive during the Obama years. Few sketches skewered the first black president. The show’s writers ignored Obama’s considerable ego, his lofty pronouncements nor the fallout from the 2013 PolitiFact Lie of the Year – “If you like your health care plan you can keep it.”

While conservatives pounced on the president via social media “SNL’s” professional scribes just couldn’t find much to mock.

The performer says many of his “SNL” skits went viral, snaring millions of views on the increasingly important YouTube.com. One sketch earned more than 30 million views.

“I would always have things that would go viral. It’s what kept me relevant all of these years,” he said.

That wasn’t enough to save his job. He thinks his willingness to speak up for himself and nudge the show toward a more diverse cast, also played into his dismissal.

“I’m fiery. I’m not a yes nigga. That’s not me,” he said. That attitude, he says, plus his personal plea for more diverse co-stars, nearly got him fired months before his eventual termination.